The adventures of a traveling teacher

Posts Tagged ‘coconut’

My classroom has the best view in the school. We have a balcony (ok, it’s really an emergency exit) off of our room that overlooks the playground. Right now, the tree outside our door is in full bloom.

It was a little windy today. As the wind blew through, the blossoms of the tree drifted away like springtime snow.

After school today, I went to the gym then came home to a delicious dinner, ready and waiting for me.

This afternoon, Sebastian threw the ingredients for this recipe into the food processor then into our new slow cooker. The only changes he made was to use tofu rather than chicken and not add the cornstarch mixture at the end since the curry was already thick and creamy.

I’m thinking about making this for our staff pot-luck next week. It was so tasty and from what I’ve been told, very easy as well. Served with naan and jasmine rice, this is the perfect mid-week meal.

Method1. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and gently fry the onions, chili, ginger and garlic until soft. 2. Add the pumpkin and sweet potatoes to the pan and sprinkle with the curry powder. Fry gently for another few minutes. 3. Pour in the coconut milk and stock, cover, bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer gently until the potatoes and pumpkin are cooked. 4. Blend the soup using a submersion blender or allow it to cool down a little then pour the soup into a blender and blend at high speed till smooth and creamy. 5. Reheat a little if necessary and serve with some fresh greens and slivered almonds. Delicious served with hot naan bread.

This morning we woke up to snow on the ground. I had hoped the ‘wintery’ part of winter was over but wasn’t so lucky.

The photo above is from 2 mornings ago. Every day before work I go out on the emergency exit balcony and take in the view. The few minutes I spend out there are precious to me, especially on days like this when I can’t help but feel like God has created a beautiful sight just to get me in the right frame of mind for the day.

I hope to keep this positive frame of mind over the weekend as I write reports for my students. Wish me luck.

Saturday shopping continued at the Asian grocery store and the supermarket to buy more avocados- gotta love the sale!

I came home, dropped off my gym bag and shopping, then left for an impromptu date on the Rhine.

Today was the perfect day to sit river side in a beer garden.

The Rhine was busy! Boats were out for work and play. People were walking, riding bikes, running, and skating. I love people watching.

My food and drink consumptions included a beer and baguette with tomato, mozzarella and basil.

Kölsch is the regional beer of the Rheinland.

After relaxing as spectators, Sebastian and I became the spectacle as we walked along the Rhine, laughing and having a good ol’ time.

I dropped Sebastian off at work then continued to walk around town, taking photos of some of the beautiful sights.

Can you imagine this being your home?

A tradition from this region is the giving of a May tree. On May 1st, love-struck lads cut down birch trees, decorate them with streamers and hearts with the names of their loves, and place the tree by the bedroom window of their sweethearts. Some trees still remain into June.

A lovely and peaceful street.

With the World Cup kicking off this week, South Africa, football, and German flags are everywhere! This advert caught my eye today! I’ll have to give the drink a try!

Back at home, I whipped up some coconut butter in the food processor. If you want to try this but don’t want to spend a fortune of coconut flakes, look in your Asian food store. I bought two big bags for €5.

Then continued into my evening meal. Dinner consisted of left-overs from my staff lunch yesterday. The food was catered by the husband of the other Year 4 assistant. This is the second time we’ve been so lucky to eat his specialties.

Thanks to the oh so linguistically clever and geographically knowledgeable Sebastian, I’ve just been given a lesson on British colonization and the spreading of exaggerated and unmeaningful terms like “my favorite,” “the best EVER,” “the cutest,” “awesome,” etc. Now, I believe that this British trend has left me reasonably unaffected. Sebastian on the other hand, disagrees. To make his long lesson short, I’ll share with you a map, outlining the spread of the British language exaggerating epidemic.

Please read in your German-professor-want-to-be-voice. “As you can clearly see in this diagram, the small British Isles were quite influential in the spread of exaggerated terms of endearment on the global spectrum. Interestingly, such exaggerations and commonly used phrases were not integrated into the languages of the Islands’ neighbors.”

In honor of my German-professor-want-to-be boyfriend, I dedicate this blog post on the 16th day of the third month of the year 2010.

I spent the morning working out tricks for the SUPER DIFFICULT 8 times tables.

During literacy, I kicked MAJOR multicultural, generational and cross-curricular ass by connecting an 1842 poem by English author, Robert Browning, with a poem by American author, Shel Silverstein, and a song by the Swedish band ABBA.Have no fear, I only played the song by ABBA, not the visual pleasures of the youtube video. My students have LOVED (no exaggeration) the story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. They know the story forwards and backwards and now also LOVE ABBA.

Extra Credit for the person who can follow my planning between the three media sources. Here’s your extra hint:

My TREMENDOUSLY TERRIFIC Tuesday continued with the most DELICIOUS left-overs EVER!

THE MOST aromatic dhal EVER! All my colleagues were SO JEALOUS!

The school fun continued with a bit of social studies- including a game I created about Roman homes, class fruit snack, and computers.

I was SO GLAD to come home once school was over. Talk about EXHAUSTION!

I LOVE dark German bread with carrots and walnuts! It is SO YUMMY! Topped with a sliced wedge of camembert cheese, DE-LIC-IOUS!

For dinner, I was the BEST GIRLFRIEND EVER! By the time my Genius-German-professor-want-to-be boyfriend came home from work, I had homemade pizza dough, sauce, and sliced fresh cheese and veggies waiting for make your own pizza.

His and Hers

Because it is SO mentally EXHAUSTING to talk think write like this, I’m going to end my adventure in British exaggerated terms of endearment RIGHT NOW!

Before going, I must make one thing clear I LOVE the inspiration for this post SO MUCH! He is MY FAVORITE, EVER! REALLY, I SO MEAN IT!!!!!

Question: Do you fall under the power of the British language exaggeration epidemic? What phrases do you overuse? I say apparently way too much, apparently.